Life, the Universe, and everything

Thoughts on life, the Middle East, and just about everything else.

Tuesday, October 29, 2002

Tacoma police Monday named D.C.-area sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo as suspects in Tacoma killing earlier this year and said a weapon possibly used by one of them was involved in the vandalism of a local synagogue. The slaying victim was a 21-year-old woman found shot to death in her home with her 6-month-old unattended in a nearby bedroom.

Eight Lebanese immigrants to Australia have been convicted for a series of gang rapes involving four young women. Their family believes they should not be punished for rape, and that the only thing they did wrong is having sex out of wedlock, for which they should be judged by Muslim law. Read the interview.

On Monday, Dr Amir Aziz was detained in Lahore, Pakistan by Pakistani and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials. Amir is said to be wanted by the US in connection with allegations that he supplied anthrax spores and biochemical weapons formulae to Islamist terrorists. He has also openly admitted to treating Osama bin Laden, as well as wounded Taliban, al-Qaeda and militant fighters in Kashmir.

Why is this not in the news?
Why are those who were so busy pushing the lone-white-guy-mad-scientist theory regarding the Anthrax mailings, not discussing this? Why??? More here.
Read this too: Who Is Syed Athar Abbas?

Complicit in murder rape and torture: a canadian oil company.
The Presbyterian Church of Sudan vs. Talisman Energy, Class Action Lawsuit"The complaint charges Talisman with violations of international law for participating in the Sudanese Government's ethnic cleansing of Christian and other non-Muslim minorities in areas of southern Sudan where Talisman is exploring for oil", according to Carey R. D'Avino, a director of the American Anti-Slavery Group, and Stephen A. Whinston, attorneys for the plaintiffs.
Rev. John Sudan Gaduel, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Sudan in Bentiu, has had churches in his Parishes bombed, church leaders slain and villages annihilated by helicopter gunships to clear the way for oil exploration. He says "Talisman is on the front lines of human rights abuses in southern Sudan and it is time they are held accountable for their role in the brutal 'jihad' that is killing my people and creating millions of refugees."
The complaint alleges that Talisman is engaged in an "unholy alliance" with the National Islamic Front Government of Sudan by knowingly participating in the Government's campaign of ethnic cleansing, to create a cordon sanitaire around Talisman's oil exploration, extraction and transportation infrastructure. Talisman continues to provide financial and logistical support for the Sudanese military knowing that the armed forces are engaged in a "jihad" against the non-Islamic civilians in the south. The roads and airfields built and maintained by Talisman serve as strategic military assets for the Sudanese armed forces who use them to launch bombing runs and ground attacks on civilian targets in violation of international law. Oil revenues not only earn Talisman significant profits, they also provide a war chest for the Government to purchase weapons and build munitions factories for its "jihad" against the south, which has resulted in 2 million civilian deaths, 4 million civilian refugees, and the enslavement of innocent men, women and children.
According to D'Avino and Whinston, "Talisman, a New York Stock exchange company, cannot be allowed to profit from its partnership with a morally corrupt government. Corporations cannot simply hire thugs to protect their operations and then feign surprise when the thugs commit a crime. At some point, respect for human rights and international law must not be sacrificed for the sake of the corporation's bottom line."

Khaled Abu Toameh reports: Masked men belonging to [Arafat's] Fatah's al-Aksa Martyrs' Brigades shot dead Haifa Sultan, 39, in Nablus on Friday night after accusing her of collaboration with Israel.
"She shouted and cried that she was innocent but they shot her in the head and she died instantly," said a resident of the casbah.
Her younger sister, Adibeh, was also accused of collaboration and was shot in the legs. One Fatah activist said the plan was to kill the two women, "but for some reason the younger sister was only injured. There is a debate now whether she too should be killed. Some say she should be taken out hospital and executed while others claim she is innocent."

Russians Probe Chechen-al Qaeda Link - Christina Lamb and Ben Aris (Telegraph - UK)
A number of Arab fighters, believed to be of Saudi Arabian and Yemeni origin, were among the group that seized control of the Moscow theater. "There were definitely Arab terrorists in the building with links to al Qaeda," said a senior Western diplomat.
Suspicions about al Qaeda's connection deepened after the Chechens broadcast a pre-recorded message on the Qatar-based al-Jazeera television network, which is frequently used by bin Laden and his lieutenants. Russian officials said that the hostage-takers had made several calls to the United Arab Emirates during the siege.

Israeli SWAT Founder Commends Moscow Rescue (Reuters)
The founder of Israel's premier counter-terrorist unit has commended the Russian handling of the Moscow theater siege and said the casualties from gas inhalation were unavoidable.
"In such rescue operations, one or two dead hostages out of a dozen is considered a success. The same can be said of 100-odd dead out of 800," said Assaf Hefetz, formerly Israel's national police chief, who set up and commanded the Israeli police unit known as Yamam.
"They had an unprecedented dilemma of having to free so many people when faced by so many terrorists. Any hold-up could have meant one of the suicide bombers taking the whole building down. By neutralizing everyone in there, the Russians took the only alternative to surrender," added Hefetz.

President Bush has announced his plan to select Dr. W. David Hager to head up the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee. Hager is a practicing
obstetrician-gynecologist, and sources told Time magazine that in his private practice he will not prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women. He is also the author of a book which suggests that women
who suffer from premenstrual syndrome should seek help from reading the bible and praying.

The Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee is responsible for offering expert scientific and medical advice to the FDA on matters relating to drugs used in the practice of obstetrics,
gynecology, and related specialties. The committee's
responsibilities include all contraceptive drugs and drugs used in performing medical abortion as well as drugs used for
infertility treatments, hormone replacement therapy and
labor and delivery.

Hager's track record of using religious beliefs to guide his medical decision-making makes him a dangerous and inappropriate candidate to serve as chair of this committee. Women rely on the FDA to ensure their access to safe and effective drugs for reproductive health care including products that have been proven to help safely prevent pregnancy. For some women - such as those with certain types of diabetes and those undergoing treatment for cancer - pregnancy can be a life-threatening condition. Religion should not be a barrier to access to safe and effective drugs that are necessary for preserving and promoting women's health and
protecting women's lives. There is no place at the FDA for someone who, based on religious beliefs, would deny unmarried women access to technologies which are a part of mainstream medical care and to which all women have a legal right.

To appoint a person who advocates religion as a treatment for medical conditions to such an influential position at the agency responsible for regulation of medical drugs is to deprive the FDA and the women who rely on it of the scientific and medical expertise they deserve.

The National Women's Health Network urges you to email President Bush at president@whitehouse.gov or call the White House at 202-456-1111.

Sample Sript: "I oppose the appointment of Dr. Hager to the FDA Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee and ask the president to select a committee chair with a track record of making
medical decisions based on science instead of religion."

If you send an email please send a copy to the National Women's Health Network office at jwashington@womenshealthnetwork.org.

APEC toughens anti-terror stanceThe 21 members of the Asian Pacific economic summit have agreed to a series of counter-terrorism measures aimed at protecting transport, finance and information systems.

At least 13 Maoist rebels and a soldier were killed in Nepal when the guerrillas, fighting against constitutional monarchy, tried to raid a rural airport.
Wouldn't it be nice if we didn't still have to deal with communists? What's with these people? Haven't they gotten the message that communism in addition to being an evil system was a miserable failure?

JIHAD WORLDWIDE - AUSTRALIAThe Australian government has officially listed Jemaah Islamiya (JI) as a terrorist organization amid reports the group has targeted northern Australia to form part of an Islamic superstate. The group headed by Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, is responsible for the October 12 bombings in Bali which killed more than 180 people, the majority of them Australian tourists.

JIHAD WORLDWIDE - American diplomat shot dead near his home in Amman, Jordan The diplomat had been identified as Lawrence Foley of the U.S. Agency for International Development. "Gunmen sprayed the diplomat with several shots, killing him instantly." USAID is the main American agency for providing international disaster relief, helping poor countries and promoting democratic reforms.

JIHAD WORLDWIDE - INDONESIAHundreds of supporters of Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir have clashed with police as he was taken from an Indonesian hospital for questioning over links to a terrorist network blamed for the bombings in Bali.

Sunday, October 27, 2002

JIHAD WORLDWIDE - ISRAELAn Arab terrorist murdered 3 Israelis and wounded 20 people in a suicide bomb attack at the gas station at the entrance to Ariel.
The dead were identified as Lt. Matan Zagron, 22, of Itamar and Maj. (res.) Tamir Masad, 41, of Ben-Shemen. The name of the third victim, a 31-year-old resident of a community in Samaria wasn't released for publication late Sunday night.
As of Sunday night, 15 soldiers and civilians remained hospitalized, three in serious but stable condition. The IDF Spokesman said two soldiers were seriously wounded and eight suffered moderate to light wounds.
Fatah's Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades and later Hamas claimed joint responsibility for the attack.

Close to 11:30 a.m., a female worker at the restaurant at the gas station spotted the terrorist, who entered Ariel through a gate that had until recently remained closed.
Local resident David Gilboa and a security guard approached the terrorist, grabbed his arms and pinned him on the ground, and alerted soldiers standing nearby. Several soldiers raced toward the terrorist, aimed their weapons, and fired.
Shahar Keshet, a student at the Ariel College, had just filled his car and was leaving the gas station when he heard shouting.
"I saw the owner of the gas station jump someone, wrestling with him and calling out that he was a terrorist. I jumped out of my car and cocked my gun and raced toward them. We held his arms and I kicked his head, and soldiers also kicked his head so he would lose consciousness. We struggled with him, and when we spotted the belt of explosives, I shot him once or twice in the head," he told reporters from his bed in Beilinson Hospital.
Keshet, who suffered shrapnel wounds, said that a moment later there was an explosion, and that he thought one of the soldiers had shot the terrorist in the chest.
His girlfriend, Nofar Amitai, told reporters that she fled from the car fearing an explosion after she heard cries that the terrorist was wearing a belt of explosives.
"I heard soldiers arguing whether to kill the terrorist or not... Shahar shot him in the head and another soldier shot the terrorist in the chest after spotting the explosives... There was an explosion... I was hysterical, I couldn't find Shahar... It took me a long time to calm down," she told Channel 2.
Bus driver Laizee Biton said he arrived to pick up soldiers around 11:20. "I heard the hotel owner shouting and saw that he and two soldiers were wrestling with the terrorist. I took out my gun and raced to the site and then heard three gunshots and then a fourth and a large explosion.
I fell backward from the force of the blast and my whole body hurt and then I saw blood spurting from my arm... people were laying bloodied on the ground," he said.

Iran:
Farrakhan arrived in Iran on Saturday, February 10, to celebrate the 17th anniversary of the country's Islamic revolution...
Farrakhan was also reported to have maintained that "Iran is now in the vanguard of an Islamic revolution that is sweeping the earth." An Iranian newspaper quoted him as saying, "You can quote me: God will destroy America by the hands of Muslims. ... God will not give Japan or Europe the honor of bringing down the United States; this is an honor God will bestow upon Muslims."..
"We live in the center of corruption and struggle in the heart of the Great Satan. Thus we need your spiritual aid." ..
"we shall utilize American Muslim unity as a lever of pressure against the United States' arrogant policies." He asserted that Iran's "Islamic revolution is a perfect example of a government based on the Koran."

Libya:
Farrakhan arrived in Tripoli, Libya, where he met with Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi...
Later that year, the Libyan leader spoke by satellite to Nation of Islam's Saviour's Day Convention in Chicago, and told Farrakhan supporters that he was prepared to provide weapons to a black army in the U.S. to destroy "white America."

And some domestic highlights:
The Final Call (September 2, 1997) reported that "he [Farrakhan] said Blacks in America are under a 'death decree' from the U.S. government but America is under a 'decree of death' from God." (Baltimore, August 15, 1997) He also told that same audience that there is a "conspiracy to dumb you down."
(Note: Final Call is the newspaper of the Nation of Islam)
"A decree of death has been passed on America. The judgement of God has been rendered and she must be destroyed..."
New York Amsterdam News, 8/14-20/97
Harlem, NY, 8/9/97

Charles Colson: When news broke that Abdullah al-Muhajir, the man accused of planning to build a "dirty bomb," was a graduate of America’s prison system, I wasn’t surprised. During twenty-six years walking the cellblocks of America’s prisons, I’ve encountered a growing Muslim presence. Keep reading.

Congress of Racial Equality Chairman Roy Innis, the head of one of the nation's most prominent civil rights organizations, has warned the White House that the rise of radical Islam within America's black community could provide a breeding ground for the perpetrators of the next wave of terror attacks against the U.S. Keep reading.

Daniel Pipes, "Converts to Violence": It came as no surprise to learn that the lead suspect as the Washington, D.C.,-area sniper is John Allen Muhammad, an African-American who converted to Islam about 17 years ago. Nor that seven years ago he provided security for Louis Farrakhan's "Million Man March." Even less does it amaze that he reportedly sympathized with the 9/11 attacks carried out by militant Islamic elements.
All this was near-predictable because it fits into a well-established tradition of American blacks who convert to Islam turning against their country...Converts most likely turn anti-American when they adhere to either of two specific forms of Islam: either the Nation of Islam (NoI, the black-nationalist sect that originated in Detroit in 1930) or militant Islam (mostly imported from the Middle East and South Asia). Keep reading.

Looking to history: The Janissaries were the elite fighting force of the Moslem Ottoman Empire for centuries. Their ranks were filled with young Christian men (who often converted to Islam) conscripted to fight for the sultan. They became instrumental in holding together the Ottoman Empire precisely because they were free from the tribal loyalties that left other Moslem Arabs and Turks, at times, conflicted. In today's parlance, we would merely call them Moslem extremists.
While most reporters (and unfortunately the White House) look at the John Walker Lindh and Jose Padilla stories as some type of strange socio-religious anomaly, these instances are anything but. The advent of Jihad Johnny and Abdullah al Muhajir represent the revival of a proved weapon of radical Islam - the Janissary warrior. And the recruitment has just begun.
The key element in the recruitment of the new Janissaries is to seek out and evangelize those who are disaffected with Western culture. In the case of John Walker Lindh, Islam provided a young man with moral boundaries when his parents would (or could) not. With Jose Padilla, the story was different.
Padilla was recruited to his new vocation as an Islamic terrorist after prison. Time will show that Padilla was not alone.

JAILHOUSE ISLAMCal Thomas, Tribune Media Services June 19, 2002:

The mail brings a letter from a self-identified African-American prison inmate (several of the same type have arrived since Sept. 11). He predicts Islam will take over the world and America's days are numbered.

This man is one of many converts to radical Islam under a program indirectly funded by Saudi Arabian money through the National Islamic Prison Foundation, which underwrites a 'prison outreach' program. This program is likely to be discussed at the fifth annual Islam in American Prisons Conference, scheduled for July 5-7 at the Holiday Inn O'Hare International in Rosemont, Ill.

One of the co-sponsors of the gathering is the Islamic Society of North America, which has ties to other Muslim groups in the U.S., some of which are up to no good. Let us hope that under the new Justice Department guidelines, the FBI will be attending and taking notes.

Prison Fellowship Chairman, Charles Colson, who heads a Christian ministry to prisoners, believes radical Islamic clerics, trained in Saudi Arabia, are converting large numbers of African-American inmates not only to their religion, but to their political objectives, including virulent anti-Americanism. Colson thinks such inmates could serve the radicals as terrorists once they are released, murdering their own countrymen in a kind of 'payback' for perceived injustices done to them by white America.

Last Oct. 20, The New York Times quoted Faheem Shuaibe, imam at a large, predominantly black mosque in Oakland, California, as saying that more than 200 African-American imams have been trained so far in Saudi Arabia. Shuaibe told the newspaper: "There was a very deliberate recruitment process by the Saudis, trying to find black Muslims who had a real potential for Islamic learning and also for submission to their agenda. They taught Islam with the intent to expand their influence. A principal target was to stop indigenous Muslim leadership in America from tinkering with their religion."

According to the Times' story, the brand of Islam being taught and exported was the most extreme sect, known as Wahhabism.

'These are bad guys,' says Colson, who contrasts his Christian ministry, which uses volunteers to visit inmates, with the 'extreme agenda' of the Wahhabi Muslims, who do not utilize volunteers, but rely on imams. Colson says he has been in 600 prisons (counting the one in which he served time for Watergate crimes). He calls some of the anger of black inmates 'legitimate' because of sentence disparity and the anger they feel at themselves. These angry men are being shaped by radical clerics in a way that will threaten America's interests when they get out.

There are 2 million people in American prisons. Most are men and only 30% are white. 'If only 5% of the African-American population is disaffected,' says Colson, 'that is an enormous pool from which the radicals can draw.'

Inmates of whatever faith, or of no faith, are entitled to visits by lay or professional ministers. But Supreme Court rulings grant the prison system the right to determine who might undermine order and who best preserves it. Wardens in state prisons and officials in the Federal Bureau of Prisons should issue new guidelines and bar radical Islamists.

While the government is at it, a serious investigation should be conducted into the proliferation of Islamic front groups in this country. Influential American political activists are rumored to be taking money from Islamic states and seeking to shape U.S. foreign and domestic policies that may not be in the best interests of their own country. They should also be the focus of journalistic concern.

This is war, after all. German spies were hunted down and exposed during the Second World War, as were spies and other threats to American freedoms during the Cold War. We should be doing the same with this greater contemporary threat.

"Pakistan's fundamentalist Islamic movement continued to gain momentum over the weekend, with a rally of the country's leading Islamic party, Jamaat-i-Islami. Jamaat leader, Qazi Hussain Ahmad launched the Oct. 23-25 rally in Islamabad claiming, 'This grand demonstration of faith is a harbinger of a great movement for Islamic Revolution (Inqilab)!'

Among the tens of thousands in attendance at the Islamabad rally were guests of honor, Syed Salahuddin, chief of the Hizbul Mujahideen, the pro-Pakistani Islamic rebel organization in Kashmir, Golboddin Hekmatyar, former Prime Minister of Afghanistan, and Ibrahim Ghousha, the official spokesman for HAMAS. Jamaat had also formally invited, 'the hero of the Islamic world,' Osama bin Laden, to attend, and had formed special uniformed units of mojahedin youth to provide security had be attended."

Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi, secretary-general of the Italian Muslim Association, and a community imam and scholar in Italy writes: "Local branches of the radical organizations that promote terrorism in the Middle East are taking root in Western countries." He quotes Shiekh Kabbani, of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, that the extremists "took over 80 percent of the mosques in the United States." Shiekh Palazzi wrote: "the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a Muslim Brethren front organization in the United States... Likewise, the American Muslim Council (AMC) is another branch of the Muslim Brethren."

An LGF poster notes:
On September 16, 2001 G.W. Bush took personal Oval Office counsel from Qazi's then number one American stooge - Muzammil Siddiqi (ISNA) - and, the next day, appeared with Siddiqi at the Islamic Center (Washington) and said of the ISNA leader and his HAMAS colleagues of CAIR and the AMC:

"This is a great country. It's a great country because we share the same values of respect and dignity and human worth. And it's my honor to be meeting with leaders who feel just the same way I do. They're outraged, they're sad. They love America just as much as I do...The face of terror is not the true face of Islam. ISLAM IS PEACE."

At a Sept. 10, 2002 meeting at the Embassy of Afghanistan to America, Bush again met with the foreign front leaders and praised same. After Qazi's MMA won two Pakistan provinces on a strict Taleban-sharia platform, in the recent elections, the American Ambassador to Pakistan met with JI leaders, and accepted same as "moderates."

Under Islam, Muslims are required to treat the U.S. Constitution as a de facto authority, only the Koran being a de jure instrument. They are using American freedoms as a means to bloody ends. I would go further than Colson advocates, including prohibition of Islamic khutbah from any public institution, and banning of the ISNA (and wings, including the Muslim Students Association), AMC and CAIR, and stripping of citizenship from any foreign born national who demonstrates treatment of U.S. laws as of de facto authority.

From an online ask-a-mullah islamic advice website, registered in Saudi Arabia :(the URL is http://www.islam-qa.com , it redirects to the addresses in the link.)